Why Treat Hypertension

If you want your health, the pillar  of well-being, to be OK,  

hypertension, the silent killer,  must always be kept at bay! 

 – I hate taking medicines. First, they are addictive. Second, don’t they have nasty side effects? No way. My body is smart enough to deal with problems on its own. 

This is how most patients make a case for ignoring high blood pressure. Is this kind or reasoning irresponsible, irrational or just dumb? 

“Poison”, “antidote”, and “side effects”

Suppose you have swallowed a dreadful poison that can ruin your brain, heart, and kidneys. The doctor offers you an antidote with some minor side effects. Would you refuse because “it’s not very good for the liver?” 

Hypertension is exactly this kind of poison.  

HYPERTENSION 

• BRAIN / chronic injury or stroke 

• VESSELS / atherosclerosis and constriction 

• HEART / angina or infarction 

• EYES / damage to blood vessels and impaired vision 

• KIDNEYS / damaged vessels and impaired function 

Hypertension hurts the walls of the blood vessels in the brain, heart and kidneys.  

Hypertension is a strong and destructive poison. It hurts the walls of the blood vessels in the brain, heart, and kidneys.  

These vessels stiffen and obstruct the blood flow, which further increases the blood pressure. As the heart has to struggle with the growing resistance in the aorta, it becomes thick and tough like a weightlifter’s muscles, which makes it increasingly prone to coronary vessel spasms and occlusion – that is, to angina and myocardial infarction. As any case of hypertension will sooner or later lead to these deplorable effects, I believe a patient should thankfully accept anything that can help stop the destruction of his brain and heart.  

Hypertension is certainly curable, at least in the beginning. Therefore, early diagnostics is the most important key to its prevention and treatment.  

Dr. Georgiy Lang, a leading Russian specialist in hypertension 

What about side effects, though? Strictly speaking, this term means minor disorders suffered by a fraction of the patients taking the particular medication in a certain concentration for a certain period of time. However, side effects usually go away once you stop taking the medication. You have to agree that no sensible person would reject an antidote to a merciless poison because it can be somewhat upsetting to his body, especially if the poison in question is a hundred percent deadly.  

Only a doctor can find the right medication against hypertension. Don’t rely on friendly advice; a remedy good for one patient could seriously harm another. It’s an exclusive privilege of the physician to select the best medication in each specific case. This is particularly important for long-time hypertension sufferers. Incidentally, they can skip a few pages below, where I will give an intriguing piece of advice to patients who have just recently confronted high blood pressure.  

Can I do without medication? 

Blood pressure is largely controlled by the kidneys. If their filtration work slows down, the body activates angiotensin (Greek for “vessel constrictor”), a hormone that increases blood pressure and enhances kidney function. If this happens on a regular basis, however, blood vessels start to get used to being constricted – and hypertension ensues.  

Can this mechanism be neutralized? Certainly.  In fact, angiotensin inhibitors are the most prevalent means against hypertension. Few people know, however, that the same result can be achieved without drugs. How can you force your kidneys to work more intensely without squeezing your blood vessels? It’s simple: just add some water to your system! We often forget to take the much-needed water for a simple reason: it makes you, a terribly busy person, visit the bathroom too often. To avoid this, we subconsciously reduce our water intake to a bare minimum. For a while, the body manages somehow – until the hot weather comes, coupled with a crunch at the office and a conflict with the boss. An adrenaline shock further tightens your poor blood vessels, which are already being squeezed by your kidneys.

Your heart starts pounding like crazy, you suffer from headaches, you start taking drugs, the darn blood pressure keeps jumping up and down, and you feel miserable, nervous, and sleepless round the clock, at home and at the office. The vicious circle is now locked in. However, those who have just recently got into this trap can try an amazingly simple and harmless method. I checked it both on myself and on others – it does work!  

To reduce blood pressure, start taking a few sips of water at 15 to 30 minute intervals (no juices, tea, or, God forbid, coffee) until your kidneys start inviting you for a walk to the bathroom every 1-2 hours. 

So, start taking a few sips of clear water at 15 to 30 minute intervals (no juices, tea, or, God forbid, coffee) until your kidneys start inviting you for a walk to the bathroom every 1-2 hours.  Take these walks and continue drinking water. To avoid its retention in the body, try to limit your salt intake. A diuretic herbal tea can encourage “lazy” kidneys. Once your kidneys start functioning properly, they stop sending signals to activate angiotensin. To calm down your heart and get rid of anxiety, try putting some ice against the back of your head, lying down, or leaning back in an armchair, in a dark room, or just close your eyes and breathe slowly and deeply using your diaphragm for 10 to 15 minutes. It will work.  

These simple techniques can quickly decrease your heart rate and reduce your blood pressure at early stages of hypertension. In advanced cases, please do not fool around: take prescription medications regularly and do not tinker with the dosage or the schedule.